Thursday, March 25, 2010

I haven't written a post of my own yet about the bill because I'm still researching it. I don't want to be talking about provisions that aren't there any longer or make other easily avoidable mistakes. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with my own personal set of mistakes AFTER researching the bill! ;)

One thing that I truly believe, though, is that any problems with the bill are the fault of both the Democratic and the Republican parties, for a number of reasons. I can hear the Republicans screaming from here :) But refusing to negotiate in good faith, and being unwilling to consider compromise, has consequences, just as does authoring and passing legislation.

The party A vs. party B situation is especially odd in this case. A significant segment of the Democratic base is angry about the bill precisely because it incorporates so many proposals and practices endorsed by Republicans in the past, at the expense of even serious consideration of what these Democrats were advocating. Those who wanted to see Medicare For All but were persuaded to accept some kind of "public option" as a compromise, didn't get a compromise (yet), so are unmoved by angry Republicans who seemingly got so much of what they had once asked for and yet didn't cough up a single vote.

A bitterly divided government may not govern all that well, and a bitterly divided nation can conquer and destroy itself. Both parties. BOTH of you are responsible... for what gets done, and for what fails to get done.

Anyway, reaction to the bill is pouring in, and with it comes some information about the bill. I've posted links to some articles of interest below.

Btw, one major reaction, by the Republican Party, was to send the bill back for amendments.